Accident forced me from being a mechanic to farming – Physically-challenged farmer

Olu Adeleye, aka Olu Mecho, shifted from mechanic to farmer following an arm amputation after a car accident. In an interview with ABIODUN NEJO, he reveals the daunting challenges of farming having lost a hand, the potential impact of support and the benefits of farming to Nigerians. Excerpts:

Despite having one arm, you are engaged in farming. What gave you the impression that you could do it initially?

Even before the accident that led to the amputation of my left arm, I was engaged in growing maize alongside active mechanic work. Initially, after the accident, I made a return to the mechanic job and engaged some people to work with me, but it didn’t work out. That was how I quit and opted for farming. I decided that instead of turning to begging in churches, ministries, markets and other places, I would rather engage in farming with the little I would be able to do with one arm. On the farm, I grow maize, yams, cocoyam and cassava.

What challenges do you face working on the farm with one arm?

(Sighs) There are challenges. I thank God. I am just recovering from a bout of malaria as I speak and that didn’t stop me from coming to the farm this morning. It is not easy working with one hand without the other one for balance, the accompanying pains are better imagined. The challenges of working as a farmer in my situation are enormous. No doubt, I need support. I plead with the government and well-meaning people in Ekiti State and Nigeria to come to my aid. With support, there is much more that I can do. I am pleading for help so that this suffering can end.

You are doing all these on the farm with one arm and getting yields. Looking at this, do you think Nigerians have any reason to be poor or hungry?

With the way I am doing it, especially with the fact that the country is blessed with fertile land and good weather, Nigerians are not supposed to be poor or hungry. Even with my condition, I give out corn and other produce from my farm to people who complain they have nothing to eat.

People with two arms and legs?

Yes. I believe that if I give to such people and they pray for me in their private and quiet times, their prayers will have an impact on me and bring help to me.

What appeals do you have for Nigerians who are begging, do not like to farm or say they want to work in offices?

I believe that everybody should be able to farm, not compulsorily on a large scale. The reason is that food comes from farms. You can have a garden at the back of your house and get food items there. With that, your money can be used to maintain yourself, rather than spending earnings on food items which you can produce from your farm. It is good for our people to try to have farms.

Have you had experience of the destruction of your farm by cattle?

I have suffered at the hands of herdsmen cattle. There was even a night I gave the herders and their herd a hot chase. Someone told me what I did was risky, as the herdsmen could shoot at me. I replied that it was better to die in defence of what one believes in. It’s illogical for someone in my situation to toil day and night and helplessly watch cattle graze everything. They found maize and cassava attractive for destruction.

There should be a permanent solution to the issue of cows destroying farmers’ yields. They said herders should ranch their cows, which should not be a difficult thing for them. If they have to graze openly, the herders should know that it should not be in an environment where farmers have invested fortunes in their farms. It costs the cows no time to destroy hectares of cassava and maize farms, leaving the farmers to suffer in debt and poverty. There was one day I burst into tears when I looked at the destruction that cattle visited on my maize farm.

Were you able to identify the herders?

They move about at night. So since you cannot apprehend them that night nor detain their cattle, identifying them will be difficult if not impossible.

What are those things you were doing before but can no longer do now with your present condition?

A lot of things. I was a football player, and I cannot do that again. I was into jumping, but that is gone for good. Before the accident, I was buying cars for people as an agent, I was helping customers to drive cars from the Republic of Benin to Nigeria but nobody engaged me again.

   In what ways do you think you can be supported?

I want help in the area of empowerment by setting up a trade for me. Given my experience as a mechanic of many years, I can sell engine oil if the government, groups or well-meaning Nigerians can set the business up for me. I would appreciate being encouraged to sell engine oil in my house here for those who need oil. This will complement the farm in the interest of diversifying to make ends meet.

What of your farming activity?

I need people to work for me on the farm. It has been difficult getting people to work and even how to pay them. The prices of the herbicides being used on the farm are on the high side. I have committed over N100,000 this year. There is still more to do, but there is no money again for the herbicides. It is only one hand that I am using. I need help to sustain the farm. I cultivate, I make heaps, I spray with my condition, only that I cannot do as much as I could have with two hands. These demand resources that will require well-meaning Nigerians to come to my aid.

How did you raise money to begin the farms and sustain it till now?

When I was a mechanic, I was not a spendthrift. I was always thinking of what I could do with the resources that came to me. That was why it was not difficult for friends and acquaintances to come to my aid with the little they could afford after the accident. Even today, whatever gets to my hand is not for beer or pepper soup, but for drugs and farm needs. My resort to farming was to ensure I did not go begging, which I consider a shameful act.

What was your growing up like?

I am over 60 years old now. I grew up in Ilupeju Ekiti where I attended primary and secondary schools. After that, I went on an apprenticeship as an auto mechanic for four years. It was my choice and I am so much in love with being a mechanic. I started as a full-fledged mechanic over 40 years ago.

So, what can you say have been your benefits/achievements as a mechanic?

I thank God for my choice. From working as a mechanic, I live in my own house, I train my children in schools to my capacity. Through being a mechanic, God gave me what it takes to be a man and a responsible member of society. I had a car, a manual drive before I had the accident that put me in this condition. But since there was no way I could drive the car after the amputation, I had to sell it off to maintain myself and to start the farm which I have since been engaging in. It was not the car that I drove when I had the accident.

When was the accident and how did it happen?

I had a ghastly motor accident on May 18, 2019. I borrowed the Toyota Sienna van that I drove that day from somebody to take some people to a marriage ceremony at Otun Ekiti from Ado Ekiti here as my car could not contain the number of people that wanted to go for the event. It was the grace of God that I survived the accident. It happened on our return journey. I did not drink at the party, nobody could say I was drunk. It was at a slope along Ilawe Road where the accident happened. Our vehicle was about to descend the slope when an okada recklessly crossed in front of the van. As I made an effort to avoid crushing the okada man, the vehicle climbed on bumps and the car somersaulted about four times. As I struggled, the van fell on my left arm. We were rushed to the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido Ekiti.

How many people were in the vehicle with you when you had the accident?

We were 13 in all in the Sienna van. Some of the occupants were admitted to the hospital as well, some were discharged on the second or third day, I was the only one with a serious case. I was in the hospital for about three or four months.

I pleaded with the doctors at the hospital not to amputate the arm because I was circumspect about how life would be without an arm, especially considering my job. The doctors tried, but at the end of the day, they told me there was nothing they could do but amputate it if I wanted to save my life. That was how I left active practice as a mechanic.

While you were in the hospital, didn’t they suggest a prosthesis for you? Why didn’t you consider that, so that you could continue with your mechanic work?

The doctor told me then that when it is time and if there are resources, getting an artificial arm (prosthesis) would not be difficult. That time, he said such would cost me about N2m. But I knew I didn’t have N2m then. There was a time I went to Lagos for a free plastic arm. When they fixed it, it was as if I carried a heavy item. I could not use it.

It is indeed difficult coping as a farmer with an arm. There was even a time I felt frustrated and took a substance to farm so that I would poison myself and die.

Why such a thought?

It was because life was hard. I had two wives before the accident, the elder wife died in January last year. I am now left with my younger wife. You could understand what it means to have before and not have again and somehow incapacitated too. But while there on the farm that day, another thought crossed my mind that having an arm should not mean an end of life. That was why I threw the substance away and returned home. When I got home, I began to query myself why I did not end it all at the farm. I thank God that I have passed that stage now.

In all these, what are you most grateful for?

I thank God for the grace of life and good health. I thank the mechanics in Ekiti State for their support and for finding me worthy to be made the chairman of the Mechanics’ Task Force to date, a body saddled with the responsibility of ensuring sanity in the profession. My full appreciation also goes to Governor Biodun Oyebanji for the sand-filling of my compound. This compound was like a ditch. When Governor Oyebanji passed here sometime last year on an inspection of the road that passes through the front of my house, I greeted him, he asked what I needed, and then I told him of my compound here which was like in a ditch. He told the contractors to factor in whatever I needed in that area. That was what brought about the filling of my compound. I told the governor that my needs were many but that of my compound was key at point in time, taking advantage of the then ongoing road construction work. The governor even instructed a particular official to let me see him, which I am still looking forward to.